"Villains, I Always Thought, Were More Interesting"

"It was a chance encounter on a tennis court in the Poconos in 1939 that started Mr. Robinson’s career. Then 17 and on vacation before going to college, he was wearing a jacket covered with his own cartoons when a man on a nearby court struck up a conversation. It was Bob Kane, primary creator of a counterpart to Superman then still in the works: Batman."

Dennis Hevesi in The New York Times reports the death of Jerry Robinson, the creator of the Joker.